Remote communication apparatus

ABSTRACT

A remote learning system combines on-line service information and remote user information with a television signal designed to be received by students using multimedia personal computers. The combined signal is then transmitted to all of the students at their personal computers. At each personal computer, the received signal is separated into its component parts by a VBI modem for display or control on/of the personal computers. Each personal computer is capable of communicating back to a main server over a network such as a public telephone network. A broadcasting facility integrates the information transmitted over the network from a single student with the television signal.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention describes a system which permits an instructor toteach one or more students at a site remote from the instructor.

2. Description of the Related Art

Instruction of students located in the same physical classroom as theinstructor is an effective method of teaching because it allows astudent to ask questions to both the instructor and the rest of herclassmates. The instructor can give an immediate answer to the students,and can spontaneously ask additional questions of the students as thelecture progresses. In short, the instructor and the students can easilyinteract with each other concerning the topic of the lecture.

However, it is often necessary or desirable to teach students who forsome reason are not able to meet in the same physical classroom. Forexample, students or instructors located at disparate physical locationsmay not be able to meet in one location or the number of students may beso large as to preclude fitting comfortably into one classroom. In thesesituations, distant or remote learning systems can advantageously beemployed.

One approach to teaching students at remote sites, disclosed in U.S.Pat. No. 4,785,472, involves connecting a teaching station with aplurality of student stations over telephone lines. Both the teacher andthe students have a prerecorded instructional tape and a video player toplay the tape on. In operation, the instructor lectures, sends data to acomputer, and controls on/off synchronization of the video players withcommands sent over the telephone lines. In this manner, the instructoris able to lecture and periodically visually illustrate the lecture byshowing the same section of multiple, identical video tapes to all ofthe students. This approach to remote learning has significantlimitations caused by a need for (1) a constant telephone connection tothe teaching site; (2) video segments for each session; and (3) aprepared video tape that must be distributed to each student before thelesson begins. Each of these requirements for a conventional remotelearning system has associated costs, the most significant of which maybe the telephone connection that must be connected for the completelesson.

Another conventional approach to remote learning is to use personalcomputers outfitted with a modem such that all communication is overpublic telephone lines. This approach is initially advantageous becausethe setup cost is low; once in use, however, the phone connect timecharges can be prohibitively expensive.

Additionally, it is presently difficult to send video signals with thelimited bandwidth available with today's telephone lines and modems.Further, proposals to use wide bandwidth telephone lines for such videotransmission will increase further the costs required to use suchproposed systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the present invention to address thelimitations of the prior art remote learning systems. It is a furtherobject of the present invention to provide a remote educational systemthat provides a visual and, when appropriate, audio presentation, forstudents, including, for example, pictures of the instructor whileallowing the students to easily interact with the instructor and witheach other.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a remoteeducational system that is low in cost for the student, both in terms ofthe initial hardware and software required and in the day-to-dayoperation.

The advantages and purpose of the invention will be set forth in part inthe description which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Theadvantages and purpose of the invention will be realized and attained bymeans of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in theappended claims. To attain the advantages and in accordance with thepurpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, theinvention comprises a system for remote communication between a host anda client, comprising a host facility for integrating data to be suppliedto the client into vertical blanking intervals of a television signaland broadcasting the integrated television signal. A client receives thebroadcasted integrated television signal and separates the integratedtelevision signal into a standard television signal and theto-be-supplied data. Finally, the client transmits information to thehost facility by connecting to a network linked with the host facility.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory onlyand are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate an embodiment of the inventionand together with the description, serve to explain the principles ofthe invention. In the drawings,

FIG. 1 is an illustration of the distance learning system according toan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary multimedia PC as used in anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the integration of the display data andpresentation data according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary display of the user interface presented by thesoftware according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates one of the multimedia PCs used in an embodiment ofthe present invention; and

FIGS. 6A and 6B are a flow chart illustrating the system operationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodimentof the invention, an example of which is illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be usedthroughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A remote, or distance learning system is disclosed which combineson-line service information with a television signal designed to bereceived by students using a multimedia personal computer. Each personalcomputer is capable of communicating back to a server over a network,such as a public telephone network. The broadcasting facility thenintegrates the information transmitted over the network from a singlestudent with the television signal, such that all the personal computerusers (e.g., students) can see the information without having to connectto the network. The server may also integrate information originating atthe server for transmittal to the students' personal computers.

In FIG. 1, the distance learning system (DLS) 100 according to thepreferred embodiment comprises a broadcasting antenna 102 forbroadcasting information, such as an instructional presentation, to aplurality of multimedia personal computers (PCs) 106 located at sitesdistant from the antenna 102. The antenna 102 could equivalently bereplaced by a cable television link. A broadcasting facility 110, andserver 104 are coupled to the antenna 102 and generate the signals to bebroadcast by the antenna 102. A network 108, such as a public telephonenetwork, is used to transmit data between the PCs 106 and the server104. Although in the preferred embodiment the network 108 is a publictelephone network, it could equivalently be any wide area network orcombination thereof.

Reference will now be made to FIG. 2 to describe an exemplary embodimentof one of the PCs 106. Television tuner card/vertical blanking interval(VBI) modem 208 receives the television signal transmitted from theantenna 102. The television tuner card/VBI modem 208 may preferably beany of a number of suitable commercially available products, such as,for example, the Malachi, manufactured by En Technology Corporation. Thetelevision signal received at the tuner card/VBI modem 208 is providedto the on-line operating module 212 as presentation data and displaydata. Presentation data is the real-time audio-video data recorded bythe instructor whereas display data is data that, for example, definesactions of the students. The on-line operating module 212 controls amodem 210 and display area 216 of the PC's monitor 214. Further, theon-line operating module 212 manages information input from the user ofPC 106 using input devices such as a mouse, a pen writing tablet, or akeyboard.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary one of the multimedia PCs 106. In thepreferred embodiment, PC 106 is a multimedia personal computer operatingwith the 80×86 compatible architecture and a graphical or windows basedoperating system. However, as would be recognized by one of ordinaryskill in the art, many other suitable computer architectures andoperating systems could be equivalently used.

PC housing 500 of PC 106 holds the majority of the PC's operatinghardware. Housing 500 may hold, for example, the main processor, a harddisk drive, a floppy disk drive, fast access volatile memory, and CD ROMdrive. Either connected to or integrated within housing 500 are avariety of input devices such as keyboard 506, mouse 502, and touch pador pen writing tablet 504. PC 106 may also include speakers 508 andmonitor 214, used to output audio and visual information, respectively.Modem 210, for sending or receiving digital data over phone lines, iselectrically connected to housing 500. Television tuner/VBI modem 208,for receiving a modified standard television signal, is alsoelectrically connected to housing 500. Both modem 210 and tuner/VBImodem 208 may alternately be implemented as computer (or printedcircuit) boards installed within the housing 500.

The invention will be further clarified by the following operationaldescription, which is intended to be exemplary of the invention. In atypical remote learning session according to the present invention, aninstructor, located at the host site 112, teaches students, each locatedat one of the PCs 106. The lecture information in the form of anaudio-visual feed from the instructor, called presentation data, isbroadcast through a television signal by antenna 102 to the PCs 106. Inaddition to the presentation data, data to be used to control theon-line operating module 212, called display data, is embedded withinthe television signal being broadcast to the PCs 106. Frequently, thedisplay data describes updates to be made to the students' displays.

FIG. 3 illustrates the integration function of the presentation datawith the display data, performed at the host 112. Presentation data tobe integrated may include a live or taped audio-visual feed of thelecture. Display data to be integrated may include data entered byeither the instructor or one of the students. Display data entered by astudent is transmitted to the host 112 through network 108 using thestudent's modem 210 before it is integrated. The actual integrationoperation is performed by integrator 300, which receives the displaydata and presentation data and integrates them into a single outputsignal 302. The output signal 302 comprises a standard television signalof the presentation data modified by inserting the display data into thetelevision signal's vertical blanking intervals. The output signal 302is transmitted to the broadcasting facility 110 and antenna 102 forbroadcasting to the PCs 106.

All the display data at the server does not have to be integrated by theintegrator 300. Optionally, if the server is to send data to only one,or only a few students, and a live modem connection exists between thosestudents, the server may send the display data directly over the livemodem connection.

At each PC 106, tuner card/VBI modem 208 receives the transmitted outputsignal 302 and reads the display data from the vertical blankinginterval of the television signal. The separated presentation anddisplay data signals are then transferred to the on-line operatingmodule 212.

The on-line operating module 212 manages the user interface 216 andtransfers the output display data over modem 210 to server 104 vianetwork 108. A typical display on the user interface 216 is shown inmore detail in FIG. 4. The operation of the on-line operating module 212in relation to FIG. 4 will be described next.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary display of the interface screen presented by theon-line operating module 212 to the user. A similar interface screenwould be presented to the instructor at the host 112. The three mainsections of the interface screen are the instructor presentation section400, the chalkboard section 402, and the typing/bulletin board section404.

In the instructor presentation section 400, a real-time rendering of thetelevision presentation data is displayed. Typically, this would be adisplay of the instructor and/or his instructional materials during alecture. An audio signal corresponding to the instructor's presentationmay be simultaneously output to the speakers 508. The chalkboard section402 is an interactive chalkboard that can be written on by either theinstructor or the students. Typically, a computer mouse, touch pad,and/or pen writing pad is used to write on the chalkboard 402.Information written on the chalkboard 402 by the instructor isintegrated into the television signal as display data at the host 212,by the integrator 300, and transmitted to the PCs 106, where it issubsequently separated by the tuner card/VBI modem 208 from thetelevision signal and displayed on the students' chalkboards 402.

A flow chart of the decision sequence initiated when a student writesinformation to her chalkboard 402 for viewing by the instructor and theother students is shown in FIG. 6. When information is written on thechalkboard by the student, step 600, it is transmitted as display databy the student's modem 210 to the server 104 in step 606. If in step 602it is determined that the modem is not connected to the public telephonenetwork, step 604 is executed, connecting the modem 210 to the network.If a predetermined period of time elapses with no transmission by themodem and the software is in a “toll-saving” mode, modem 210 willautomatically be disconnected from the telephone network. In the“toll-saving” mode, connections to the server are temporary and endafter a predetermined period of time. If a connection has been ended andthe student subsequently performs actions which require connection tothe server, the client program transparently re-establishes theconnection.

In step 608, the display data received by the server is written onto theserver chalkboard. Next, the display data is integrated with theinstructor television signal, step 610, and the integrated output signal302 is broadcast, step 612. The integrated output signal 302 is thenreceived at the students' PCs, step 614, and separated by the tuner/VBImodem 512 in step 616. The separated display data is received by theon-line operating module 212. Finally, the on-line operating module 212judges whether the display data is the same display data that waspreviously entered and transmitted from the host PC. If it is not thesame display data, the chalkboard 402 is updated with this new displaydata in step 620. If it is the same display data, the chalkboard 402 isnot updated.

Although the above example was illustrated using a general broadcast ofthe display data, that is, the display data was received and displayedon all the PCs 106, more selective broadcasting functions can beutilized. In particular, the student or instructor writing on thechalkboard may elect for her message to be displayed on only a selectedset of the other PCs. To do this, the user selects, preferably using amenu system, whom her message is to be sent to. This selectioninformation is transmitted with the display data. At the receiving PC,an additional judgment is made at step 619, namely, the PC determineswhether the message was addressed for display to that particular user.If it is determined that it was intended for that user, the message isdisplayed, otherwise, the message is ignored by the on-line operatingmodule 212.

Typing/bulletin board section 216 of the user interface is used by thestudents and the instructor as an interactive “chat” area in whichmessages can be quickly typed and transmitted to other users. Here,after a line of text 406 is entered by a student or the instructor, itis converted into display data by the on-line operating module 212 andtransmitted to the other users in the same manner that informationentered on the chalkboard is transmitted. That is, the text istransmitted to the host 112, integrated into the television signal bythe integrator 300, and broadcast to the PCs 106. Similar to thechalkboard information, a user may also address the messages sent to alimited set of users, allowing for more personal messages.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the embodiment of thepresent invention and in construction of this invention withoutdeparting from the scope or spirit of the invention. As an example, thedisclosed invention is not limited to remote classroom instruction withan instructor lecturing to students. Indeed, a bulletin board andon-line service has been constructed using the concepts disclosed in thepresent invention. The bulletin board and on-line service transmits mostof the general bulletin board data to the users using a high bandwidth,low reception cost signal such as a television signal. The userstransmit their data using a lower bandwidth network such a publictelephone network. Although all the users receive a single transmissionsignal from the bulletin board, the user's local software only displaysthe information intended for that user.

Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled inthe art from consideration of the specification and practice of theinvention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification andexamples be considered as exemplary only, with the true scope and spiritof the invention being indicated by the following claims.

1. An interactive television-computer apparatus, comprising: a componentthat receives a broadcast signal and separates the broadcast signal intoa video signal for display on a display device, an audio signal fortransmission to an audio output device, and a data signal, at least partof the data signal being sent for display on the display device; and anetworking device for transmitting data to a host facility that isoperative in providing said broadcast signal.
 2. A television-computerapparatus employing a user interface for presenting video and datareceived from an integrated broadcast signal while at the same timebeing used for inputting data that is sent to a host facility by meansof a network connection.
 3. A single integrated television tuner/datadecoding device that is attachable to a computer and is configured toreceive a broadcast signal, separating audiovisual data and otherdisplay data from the broadcast signal.
 4. The television tuner/datadecoding device of claim 3 configured as a single circuit card thatattaches to an expansion slot of the computer.
 5. The televisiontuner/data decoder device of claim 3 configured as an external moduleconnected to the computer.
 6. A system comprising: a single integratedtelevision tuner/data device that is attachable to a computer andconfigured to receive a broadcast signal, separating audiovisual dataand other display data from the broadcast signal, a user interface fordisplaying the data received from the broadcast signal and for receivinginput data for transmission to a communication server.